Byrnes just a small part of the problem

From left: Padres Executive Chairman Ron Fowler, General Manager Josh Byrnes, second baseman Jedd Gyorko, Manager Bud Black and President/CEO Mike Dee. Gyorko, signed a five-year, $35 million contract Monday to remain with the team. The deal includes a club option for a sixth year. Andrew Burer, U-T TV.

From left: Padres Executive Chairman Ron Fowler, General Manager Josh Byrnes, second baseman Jedd Gyorko, Manager Bud Black and President/CEO Mike Dee. Gyorko, signed a five-year, $35 million contract Monday to remain with the team. The deal includes a club option for a sixth year. Andrew Burer, U-T TV.

"You can prepare a donkey to run in the Preakness, but he probably won't run very well." -- Former Padres pitching coach Greg Booker.

Well, something had to happen, right?

The Padres have lost 12 more games than they've won, are a league-worst in every key offensive statistic and don't have a single player who'd be recognized north of Camp Pendleton or east of Santee. David Letterman once said that he'd rather be bad than dull. This team has managed to be both.

So Sunday afternoon, the Padres' brass shook up the ship and fired General Manager Josh Byrnes. You won't hear a lot of complaints around town. Byrnes' decision-making during his two and a half years on the job warrants a C-minus at best.

But if the Padres' owners think they did anything more than slather a squeeze of Neosporin onto the problem, they're sorely mistaken. Nope, at the end of the day, they still are the problem.

Maybe this won't always be the case. This ownership group -- headed by Executive Chairman Ron Fowler -- did up its payroll by 25 percent from last year, making good on a promise to increase resources for baseball operations. But at a shade over $90 million ($145 million less than the Dodgers), team payroll is still 21st in the league. You know how many of the nine teams who spend less on their rosters would make the playoffs if the season ended today? One. Billy Beane's Oakland A's.

You can find a way to win without being rich, sure, but you can also learn to play piano without a teacher. If you want to maximize your chances at success, you have to do it right -- and the Padres aren't yet at that point.

"We want to move into that middle tier," Fowler said Sunday in regards to the team's budget in comparison to the rest of Major League Baseball. "We can build and build rather dramatically."

The owners have been telling us about what the Padres can do for a year and a half now, but the results haven't followed suit. A record of 76-86 in 2013 extended the no-playoff streak to seven seasons, and as the team sits at 32-44 now, an eighth straight whiff seems all but assured.

Meanwhile, the Padres have just one $10 million player (the overpaid Chase Headley) and while the payroll did increase from last season, it must be noted that a significant portion of that hike came in the form of raises for current players as to avoid arbitration.

Should Padres fans be happier with ownership's spending habits? Yes. Should they be happy? Heck no.

Not that we should be giving Byrnes a pass here. He has given $26 million to an injury-prone Carlos Quentin, who averaged 84 games in his first two seasons as a Padre and has played 29 so far this year. This offseason, he gave $8 million to an equally injury-prone Josh Johnson, who again blew out his elbow and hasn't pitched an inning for San Diego.

Last month, Byrnes signed Jedd Gyorko to a six-year, $35 million contract years before the offer was necessary, only to watch Gyorko hit .162 so far this season. And in 2011, he traded away ace Mat Latos for Yonder Alonso, Yasmani Grandal, Brad Boxberger and Edinson Volquez, none of which have panned out.

In Byrnes' defense, he did make some fist-bump-worthy moves as well -- acquiring Tyson Ross for next to nothing, picking up Ian Kennedy and Seth Smith this offseason, and extending Huston Street, whose 2014 stat line includes 20 saves and an 0.96 earned run average. But like the Padres' lineup, Byrnes' hits were too scarce to solidify his job status, leaving his departure with little room for heavy protest.

So now what? Well, in the short-term, the Padres will look for a new GM while Omar Minaya, A.J. Hinch an Fred Uhlman Jr. fill the void on an interim basis. But in the long-term, the owners opening up a job search should be of far less importance than them opening up their wallets.

They say they want to increase payroll. They say they want to escape that small-market tag. They say they want to compete. And while that's all nice to hear, it'd be a whole lot nicer to see.

Kudos to the small steps the Padres have made in the last year and a half. They've no doubt tried harder, but they haven't tried hard enough.

Team president Mike Dee said on Sunday that, from here, "we're going to look forward." Hopefully there's a mirror right in front of them.